There is no way that Hamilton at his best could ever beat Boitano at his best. Boitano, after his choreographic makeover, had it all. With the exception of his footwork, I've never seen anything exceptional about Hamilton's skating. I think the reasons he won so many amateur competitions is, 1. He was a stellar brown-noser and the judges lurve that. 2. A lot of his competitors (with the exception of Boitano and a couple of others) tended to crash and burn while he remained vertical. Doesn't mean his skating was all that, but he got lucky and managed to stay upright. 3. He was good at figures.

Reason makes me say that Boitano deserved his win: he was clean, and Orser was not. But it was very narrow. And my heart belonged to Orser, . I hated Boitano for so long after that...

Last year, I watched a portrait of B. Orser on CBC, and his life was so clearly tainted by that "failure" that I almost cried for him. But I'm sure he's learning to make his peace with it, and if he does, I sure can, too, lol! :D After all, two Olympic silvers is hardly something to be ashamed of!

I think I am going to have to go off of memory for this one, but Brian Boitano landed 2 triple axels and a 3flip/3toe, his program was technically superior to that of Brian Orser, I think Orser had a slight mistake as well...artistically neither was superior to each other in my opinion.

the battle

I would have given the gold to Brian Orser and I'm not from Canada. I guess Brian B had those bigger axels, but artistically I think Orser was the best skater. He was much faster, he rotated his jumps so quickly compared to BB.

I spent last summer rewatching the great comps of the 1980's, so my memory on this is quite recent.

I watched the Canadian telecast of the '88 Olympics with Johnny Esau, Debbie Wilkes and Brian Pockar as commentators. Boitano skated first, and the amount of raving from Esau, Wilkes and Pockar was amazing. Esau wanted to know where the 6's were and Wilkes had to remind him that the judges had to save room for Orser, but Johnny still wasn't having any.

When you make that kind of impression on the commentators from the country of your biggest rival, you have absolutely exceeded the requirements for what was then Artistic Expression (different rules today).

The collective gasp from the crowd on the huge huge death drop he did alone was worth the price of admission.

When Orser skated, he was tentative and doubled his 2nd 3A, and had a hugely wide swinging free leg on his 3f. Worse, he was also doing a military program, just as Boitano did. And frankly, he was in a costume that looked like a bellhop's. He was not convincing as a military hero. Sing, Sing, Sing, Orser's SP was definitely the kind of program Orser should have been doing, but The Bolt was not in that vein at all. Skated perfectly, Orser could definitely have beaten Boitano. But he did not skate perfectly. In many ways, he lost the competition not only because of his skating, but also because of an unfortunate choice of music and costume, and choreography that negated his superiority to Boitano in the artistic area. There was a particularly unappetizing piece of business where he mimes getting shot, but he doesn't slow down, act like he's hurt or even show facial distress. For me, Orser lost this competition on the 2nd mark as well as on the first.

Sandra Bezic definitely deserves a lot of the credit for Boitano's look, but she also deserves some of the blame, too, for the criticism of Boitano's work that it lacked choreo. It was Bezic who decided that Brian should do only 'stately' footwork, not fast footwork. In his previous, and much maligned programs, Brian favored fast jazzy routines and he had pretty good footwork, although not up to Orser's standard, IMO. In doing this sort of routine, he was working Orser's line of country, and therefore looked 2nd best at it. He also got criticized by Dick Button for flailing arms. Watching BB pre Bezic, I was reminded of some of the European skaters of today, actually. Bezic removed the arms and the footwork.

If you have a chance, do get a copy of the whole 1988 Olympics.
A Great Set of competitions in all 4 disciplines, and my favorite Olympics so far.

Also - Boitano's second triple axel was definitely two-footed. It was an admirable attempt (especially at the time, when landing *one* was still considered quite a technical feat) but still not clean. I felt that made him and Orser about even on the technical mark, and that Orser had him quite easily on the second mark. But of course, that's just my opinion.

Actually, Boitano's second 3Axel wasn't two-footed. I have that program on my computer and just watched it with slow-motion. I paused it right on the landing and his free foot is nowhere near the ice--it was clean. Besides, Orser was two technical 'points' behind Boitano--the step-out on the 3flip and no second 3Axel even attempted. But you are right though, Orser had him on the second mark, and the judges agreed with you. Too bad for him that in '88 it was the tech mark that broke the tie.

Another point to consider....if there were no figures portion of the '84 games, Orser would have been the gold medalist--he won both the SP and LP but was too far behind Hamilton in figures to catch him. Same situation for Liz Manley in '88. She creamed everyone in the LP, easily winning that portion. Her figures killed her shot at the gold though.

I have not only some of the US footage but the Australian footage as well (and I've watched both in slow-mo, LOL), and Boitano definitely stuck his foot in the ice briefly. But as I said before, it was a good attempt. If Orser had done that on the flip jump the vote would have been much closer, I feel. I felt even then that it was starting to become a "jump contest" and the better jumper rather than the better overall skater won. But's that JMO, of course.

As far as I'm concerned, the better overall skater did win. Orser and Boitano are two vastly different skaters, so trying to compare their skating is silly. Orser is a lot smaller than Boitano, so his skating was a lot lighter and quicker, with a lot of needless arm swinging, but I digress...

Boitano is a big guy, for a skater. Sandra Bezic created choreography that suited him better for his size. The choreography was much more subtle than Orser's, but it was still great. In the years prior to 1988, Boitano tried to do choreography like the little guys to make the judges happy, and he came off looking like a dork with all the excessive arm swinging. IMO, the "less is more" approach to choreography works very well for him. Too bad there aren't more male skaters who feel that way about choreography and costumes. :sheesh:

I had to vote "I don't know". I have it on tape, and viewed it recently, and I still can't tell you who should have won it. I remember that on the first viewing back in '88, I was simply overjoyed that there was such a depth of talent in the men's field.
We have seen many competitions where the scores were as close, but not many where the skaters both had such wonderful skates and were both so equally talented. I think that if the judges had given the gold to Orser, no one would have squawked too loudly.
Of course (~waving flag~) Boitano won it! USA! USA! (Just kidding, guys...)
Rave

Well to me there is just no contest! Boitano skated what must still rank as one of the greatest skates of all time under the most enormous pressure. His lines were crisp and clean, the choreo understated and elegantly fitting and the jumps apart from the slight touch down on the 2nd 3x were flawless. Also his short program was a masterpiece and my alltime fave mens sp (along with Petr Barnas Mozart program from '89). Seriously I've watched it like a hundred times over the years and I'm always at Boitano's pres marks. If oyu compare his Olympic LP with his '86 Worlds LP it's like watching 2 different skaters. That's how great he actually became!!!!